WEEKEND REVIEWS : Pop : Bikini Kill Teeters on Edge of Disarray

Injecting punk venom into its own feminist manifesto, Bikini Kill has spent the last three years storming the musical underground with a vehement message of youthful female empowerment.

The band’s early show on Friday night at Las Palmas Theatre teetered blissfully on the brink of disarray. In addition to sound-system difficulties, drummer Tobi Vail had been hospitalized with a condition “too complicated to explain,” frontwoman Kathleen Hanna told the audience. Three different drummers filled in for Vail (including the band’s male T-shirt vendor).

Hanna, as the bratty ingenue, took it all in stride, handling hecklers and devotees with aplomb as she led the band into ragged, clangorous action. Bopping and vamping with perky aggression, she even invited three members of the audience (including a member of Fizz Gig, a kindred Los Angeles band) to join her on vocals.

Though Bikini Kill’s songs seethed with emotional sincerity, Hanna had her gratuitous moments, mugging with a caricatured cuteness that sometimes underscored, other times undermined the pain and outrage of her lyrics.

The most moving songs, “Feels Blind” and “Outta Me,” were the ones where she seemed to let go of the poses and allowed the power of the music to carry the moment. Some observers would like to see the band members move past their adolescence musically, but the band itself seems quite content with its niche.